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Transmeta is preparing a completely redesigned architecture and new bus technology for the TM8000, the next-generation chip scheduled to ship in the third quarter.

The company released its first chip, the low-power Crusoe designed for ultraportable notebooks and Tablet PCs, in January 2000. It uses code-morphing software that both interprets x86 instructions from applications, and also translates frequently used x86 instructions into the Crusoe's VLIW (very long instruction word) instructions. This reduces the number of transistors the chip needs, moving the complexity of the processor into software, which saves power, says John Heinlein, director of system marketing for Transmeta.

The TM8000, code-named Astro, features a higher-performance version of the code-morphing software, Heinlein says. It also increases the 128-bit VLIW engine to a 256-bit design that lets the chip execute eight separate 32-bit x86 instructions per clock cycle, up from four in today's Crusoe chips.

This allows Astro to deliver more performance per clock cycle at lower voltages than other mobile processors, Heinlein says.

More Push Per Tick

Performance per clock cycle is a contentious issue between the other major PC chip vendors: Intel and Advanced Micro Devices. AMD has long contended that its Athlon XP processors do more work per clock cycle than Intel's Pentium 4 processors, implementing a model number rating system to underscore the argument that its chips perform as well as Intel's despite their slower clock speeds.

Vendors generally refer to peak performance per clock cycle when citing these figures, which doesn't always reflect real-world performance, says Dean McCarron, principal analyst at Mercury Research. "The more execution units you have, the less likely they are to be full," he says.

Transmeta also included three new bus technologies in the forthcoming Astro processor. The company will use Hypertransport, a point-to-point interconnect technology, for the processor's front-side bus. AMD, among others, has been a big proponent of Hypertransport, which AMD plans to use in its Athlon64 processor.

Astro will support DDR400 (double data rate at 400 MHz) memory, but will maintain backward compatibility with the more widely used DDR266 and DDR333 memory standards. The chip will support AGP 4X for very high-speed graphics for Windows applications, Heinlein says.

The current top-end TM5800 Crusoe processor runs at 1 GHz, and Astro will make its debut at a higher clock speed than that, Heinlein says, declining to provide a specific number. Transmeta is scheduled to start mass production of the chip in the third quarter, and systems will be ready to ship around that time, he says.

Taking On Intel

Astro was created to compete against Intel's Centrino technology with the Pentium-M processor, and Transmeta will likely price Astro below the cost of the Pentium-M, based on historical trends, says Tim Bajarin, president of market research firm Creative Strategies.

For its part, Intel admitted at the recent Spring Intel Developer Forum that it decided to develop its Pentium-M processor, designed specifically for a mobile environment, as a response to Transmeta's low-power approach to chip design. After more than two years of development, Intel will launch Centrino, a combination of the new Pentium-M, the 855 chipset, and a 802.11b wireless chip, on Wednesday.

Separately, Sharp is announcing it will use the exisiting TM5800 in one of the thinnest notebooks on the market. The new Actius MM10 is only 0.54 inches thick and weighs just 2.1 pounds. It is available immediately with the 1-GHz TM5800 processor, 256MB of DDR memory, a 15GB hard drive, and built-in 802.11b wireless capability for $1499.

Tom Mainelli of PCWorld.com contributed to this report.